Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

The movements of the lips should not be overlooked.

One must have the courage of a mountain and the spirit of a great tree.

Lefia forced herself to stay focused, pushed off the ground with her feet, and began to chant.

"【liberation--】"

As she leaped back to begin her incantation—a lightning-fast slash flew past.

"what?"

The moment the murmur was uttered, the scabbard struck Lefia directly in the side.

"Hoo-hoo!?"

"ah."

The Sword Maiden's attack unleashed its power, sending Lefia flying and her wand soaring into the air.

The person who was launching the attack froze in the posture of swinging the sword from its sheath.

Lefia rolled several times on the dungeon floor, "Haa ...

"Rei... Refia!"

Ais rushed over and apologized profusely.

She had only managed to utter two words when she nearly caused a magical explosion, and Lefia broke out in a cold sweat.

Lefia lay on the ground trembling, almost fainting from the pain.

"I'm so sorry... I treated it as training with that kid and I chopped too hard."

However, upon hearing this, Lefia's eyebrows twitched, forming an angry angle.

"That child" is the one who snatched Ais away from me, the one with white hair—

Rafia's face flushed instantly. She shook off the pain and stood up abruptly.

"I...I'm perfectly fine!! Please just do as you're told!?"

"Uh, um."

The elven girl pressed one hand to her side and gave a stiff smile, which startled Ais.

Rafia developed an immense competitive spirit towards the boy (Bell), displaying an unprecedentedly indomitable personality.

She went to pick up the wand that had fallen to the ground, her eyebrows standing on end.

Lefia faces Ais, preparing for her second "parallel chant".

"Huh!?"

however--

"Hoo yeah!?"

Not at all...

"Huh!?"

Not going well.

"Release... [Liberation One - Reinforcement!?]"

Lefia's chanting was interrupted, and she was also knocked away by the sword sheath, finally collapsing to the ground from exhaustion.

Between her legs, unable to stand, her small bottom rested on the ground. She released her wand, panting heavily.

Unable to sing properly.

Ais had already shown mercy, but Lefia still had to expend a lot of energy to see through her attacks and was unable to continuously weave the most important spells. It seemed that she had only honed her skills in preventing accidental magic explosions.

Although Lefia didn't faint immediately like a novice adventurer (Bell), she was already covered in injuries.

"I'm sorry, Rafia..."

Lefia slumped to the ground, and Ais lowered her eyes and apologized to her.

She said dejectedly that her ideas were too naive.

"Perhaps we should do as Riveria says... I, as an outsider, shouldn't interfere."

Ais's words revealed regret, stating that using simulated battles to practice "parallel chanting" was simply the opinion of an amateur who knew nothing about mages.

Lefia listened to her apology and her own embarrassingly disordered breathing.

She slowly parted her lips and said:

"Miss Ais... by the way, how is that human doing?"

Lefia simply stared at the ground, asking about the boy's training progress.

Ais tilted her head in confusion, thought for a moment, and then began to speak:

"He is very serious, hardworking, and straightforward..."

Ais spoke directly about what she saw, heard, and felt, her tone revealing a warm smile.

"He's growing very fast... I think he still has room to grow."

Perhaps recalling how the boy was desperately ruminating on the advice she had given him and trying his best to keep up, showing signs of growth on only the second day of his training, Ais concluded with a sigh.

Upon hearing all this, Rafia—bang!—raised her hands and slammed them to the ground.

「!?」

Ais was startled. Right in front of her, the floor of the labyrinth (dungeon) was being smashed by the Lv.3 "power," leaving it dusty and cracked.

The girl was taken aback, while Lefia trembled uncontrollably.

The feeling of frustration is about to reach its peak.

(I... I didn't succeed at anything, but that human did...!?)

—I made a fool of myself, but that boy has grown instead…!?

Lefia felt as if she were breathing fire, the torrent of anger fueling her trembling.

In her delusion, the boy was saying, "Eh! You're complaining about this little bit? Well then, I'll go first—", with a hearty smile that made her teeth itch with anger as he ran further and further away.

Ugh...! Lefia was furious with her own delusions.

She couldn't forgive herself for being so disrespectful and pathetic.

Most importantly, she cannot give up like this.

That boy kept moving forward, and even his idol (Ais) praised him!

(I absolutely cannot lose!!)

At this point, the boy became a formidable rival in Lefia's heart.

She shouted with great force and stood up abruptly.

With a spirit and willpower that she hadn't shown during her training with Riveria, Lefia raised the corners of her eyes.

"I'm alright! Please help me!!"

Ais stared in disbelief at Lefia's shout, then broke into a smile.

She nodded, raised her sword sheath, and continued her training in "parallel chanting".

Lefia's azure eyes burned with passion, and she did not lose heart despite the relentless attacks, singing again and again.

◆

"Hey, Rivera, what's Lefia been up to lately?"

Tiona, her body and face covered in wounds and blood, asked Riveria this question.

"What are you all doing...?"

Rivera, sitting on the sofa drinking black tea, sighed while pressing her closed eyes with one hand.

"Expedition" five days ago.

In the reception room of the Twilight Mansion at the headquarters of the Loki Familia.

As noon approached, many group members left the building. While Riveria was resting alone in the meeting room facing the corridor, the Amazon sisters, whose bodies, along with their tattered skirts and clothes, appeared before her.

Tiona and Tione, with their short and long hair swaying, their exposed brown skin radiating a heat that hadn't yet cooled, answered her:

"I sparred with Tiony! I sparred with him!"

"Ais left us behind to level up first, which makes me very resentful. I just can't calm down."

"I'm happy," Tiona said, while Tione beside her shrugged.

The two female warriors (Amazons) said they fought because they were spurred on by Ais reaching level 6. "There should be a limit to that..." Riveria sighed as she looked at their injured bodies.

She knew that this confrontation between the twins, who had been together since birth, would undoubtedly escalate from a pointless sisterly squabble into a full-blown fratricidal conflict—it was no mere metaphor.

It's fine to train by sparring with another version of yourself, but this is just too intense.

"It's not just you guys, the entire [Family] has been training to the point of madness... really, even though we're about to go on an 'expedition'."

Not only Tiona and her group, but the entire faction was affected by Ais's rank up.

This sparked a training craze. Seeing the powerful and beautiful Sword Maiden, who was gradually becoming a representative figure of the Familia, achieve her great feat, everyone from the grassroots members to the faction leaders was filled with high morale.

The reason there are so few people in the gym now is because the members all want to follow Ais's example and go to the dungeon or do training.

The vice-commander of the Loki Familia sighed, as if to vent his mental exhaustion.

"Lefia probably went to train too—"

"Ais has been acting strange lately too."

Thinking of that younger elf who had been emitting miasma at dinner one moment and displaying unusual charisma the next, Tiona thought: Perhaps she had also been influenced by Ais.

Tiony, who was standing next to her, also brought up Ais's recent behavior.

"Rivia, do you know anything?"

"No, I have no clue either..."

As Rivera answered Tiona, she recalled her memories from yesterday to today.

Lefia continued to train him as a mage as usual, but her attitude had become somewhat eerie. To be honest, even Riveria was frightened by her.

She spent the entire night reading and studying books, sitting at her desk the whole time. Although she was always diligent, she's now even more proactive in trying and failing, appearing incredibly hardworking.

Rivera thought that perhaps she had found a formidable rival.

Although this member of the royal family did not live as long as the gods, he was still very old and virtuous, and had already guessed the reason for the girl's transformation.

"Let's not talk about that... at least tidy yourselves up a bit."

Rivera looked at Tiona and the others and said she simply couldn't bear to watch.

They must have engaged in a fierce exchange that resembled actual combat, as their clothes and bodies were filthy with wounds and bloodstains, and their hair was a mess.

As a race with obsessive-compulsive disorder (elves), their current appearance was simply unbearable for Riveria.

"Hmm~, we'll rest for a bit and then play again, so it's okay like this."

"Exactly, it saves us the trouble."

Seeing that the Amazon sisters seemed indifferent and unconcerned, she sighed again.

Riveria stood up from the sofa, grabbed Tione's hand, and insisted that she sit down in the chair.

"What's wrong, Rivera?"

"If you want to act like a lady in front of Finn, at least fix your hair."

Rivera went behind Tione and began to comb her long black hair.

She used the comb that was kept in the reception room to quickly tidy up her messy hair.

"What a surprise... Riveria, you're so good at doing hair! Because you're royalty, I thought your hair and appearance were always taken care of by others."

"I learned how to take care of that child... I learned it while taking care of Ais. That child used to really not care about her hairstyle or anything, I couldn't stand it anymore. I learned it by taking care of her."

Rivera gave a small, wry smile as she recalled memories from a few years ago.

The gentle touch of her hand stroking her hair made Tiony close her eyes, seemingly both embarrassed and comfortable.